all in all: where is no outward aid, but all depends on personal qualities and presence of mind."
Page 146, note 1. This paragraph originally was continued by the account of the sure instincts of Indians in the forest, some of the stories gathered from Thoreau's account of Joseph Polis, his Indian guide, in Maine.
Page 147, note 1. Quoted from the remarkable Mémoires of Blaise de Montluc, a Gascon officer under Francis I. and several succeeding kings of France, whose valor, skill and fidelity made him a Marshal of France.
Page 149, note 1. Asmodeus, a familiar spirit mentioned in The Book of Tobit in the Apocrypha, and in mediaeval books of magic. The keeping him employed by twisting a rope out of sand is spoken of by Mr. Emerson in several essays. Mr. Emerson likened his own task, of arranging his thoughts into lectures, to the Spirit's:—
The Asmodean feat is mineTo spin my sand-heap into twine.
Page 150, note 1. This passage followed in the lecture:—
"An old scholar said to me very many years ago, when speaking of his own methods, 'I build: in the morning I am athletic, and begin with Hebrew for foundation; after that I am still good for Greek; later in the day, I can read philosophy and history; in the afternoon poetry and the journals.'"1 1.1
Page 151, note 1. It is strange to recall how much less common the study of Nature or any especial branch of natural history for pure pleasure was in those days than now. Since Thoreau opened the way with his Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, perhaps his best book, but unsalable in its day, the increasing interest and delight in out-of-door pursuits
